New Yu Era 1325, early March
Xingnan Prefecture City, Headquarters of the Hexi Alliance
Alliance Leader Duan sat alone at the main seat, his face looking rather displeased.
In front of him were three single desks, with Wan Xingyun and Shen Gu Yun seated to his left and right, respectively. The middle desk, reserved for the Hou Clan, remained unoccupied.
The meeting was scheduled for the fifth, but as Alliance Leader, he had arrived about fifteen minutes late, only to find that Hou Yuxiao had not yet appeared.
Seeing the indifferent expressions on the faces of Wan Xingyun and Shen Gu Yun in front of him, Duan Hong could already be eighty percent sure of his previous suspicions.
As the custom dictated, the four families of Hexi should be on equal footing. The fact that Hou Yuxiao was conspicuously late and the other two showed no reaction at all clearly demonstrated that they considered themselves subordinate to Hou Yuxiao.
